This news is not at all encouraging. Rick Callahan, writing for the Associated Press, has an article on the fitness of Indiana’s citizens.
Long considered among the nation’s most unfit citizens, Indiana residents are apparently losing ground in the battle against obesity, smoking and other unhealthy behavior, according to a new survey.
27.2% of Hoosiers are obese, up from 25.5% in 2004, and they smoke more – 27.3% up from 24.8%, putting Indiana second in smoking behind Kentucky in the percentage of smokers. This is bad, really bad. It jacks up our health costs and likely reduces our productivity. More than that, being unhealthy severely reduces the quality of one’s life.
In this day and age, it’s just mind boggling that our percentage of smokers is increasing. I don’t know the solution, particularly. It seems as if the anti-smoking advertisements have been pretty visible. I don’t know what education is like on the subject in the schools.
As for the obesity, eating habits are a significant factor, but I suspect that Hoosiers’ lack of exercise is an even greater factor. Maybe Major Moves should focus more on bike and running trails and less on roads. But, to the Governor’s credit, his visibility in promoting exercise and healthy habits seems to show that he knows this is a significant issue and ought to be a major concern. Whether his overall approach is effective, I don’t know; but at least it’s on his radar.
I recall being in Boulder, Colorado for a day or two on my way to Rocky Mountain National Park to do some hiking. For whatever reason, we ended up in a McDonald’s, and I believe we located the only two overweight people in the entire city. Obviously Boulder has some environmental advantages that we don’t — I think it would be tough to have those mountains in your back yard and not want to get outside and enjoy them. But there is also a culture of activity. Everybody bikes, hikes, runs, kayaks, or whatever. While recognizing our environmental disadvantages, we need to cultivate a similar attitude in our communities. I’ve only seen it in passing, but it seems like the Monon Trail around Broad Ripple has encouraged residents to get out and exercise.
Obviously I don’t have a complete solution, but it seems to me that government — probably local government in particular — has a role to play in encouraging the health of its citizens. I suspect the libertarian purists in our midst will complain that this is well beyond the scope of what a government ought to do, but in our current system where we are not willing to let our citizens simply die when they become unhealthy enough, the economically prudent thing to do is to try to make sure citizens do not become unhealthy in the first place. Otherwise, we end up paying for a great deal of medical treatment in the form of Medicaid payments, subsidized emergency rooms, and the like.
So, investments governments make in parks, trails, lakes, and other recreational facilities for its citizens likely pay for themselves, albeit indirectly and over the long term.
(Sorry if this post was a bit disjointed — I had to stop my 9 month old daughter, no less than 7 times, from certain doom as she tried to climb the stairs she is not yet able to climb down. And, in doing so, she showed me up as a hypocrite in that she was getting all sorts of exercise while dear old dad was sitting around staring at a computer screen.)
In Columbus, the city has done some decent work with people trails. While not as grand as the rockies, their existance prompts me to ride more than I would if they were not there.
While some would call this pork, I think we should pass a law about building double number of miles in people trails that we do in roads. For example, if the state does the I-69 expansion for 80 miles, then they need to fund 160 miles of people trails. If we’re going to put a large chunk of money into roads so people can move their 200lb butt in a 3000lb SUV, then we ought to spend a LITTLE on trails that people can use without using gas.
I’d also like to see some fraction of the money spent on highways used to design communites so that they are easier to get around on foot, bike, or other non-motorized transportation. This is probably a selfish concern, in that my neighborhood is designed such that the only way to get to the main part of the town is by covering a significant stretch of busy, two-lane road with no sidewalks.
It probably wouldn’t hurt to pursue urban design that makes greater use of local grocery stores and shops and less of a design that requires the average citizen to get in a car and drive to a big box store to get their supplies. (I’m just spitballing here; I don’t know what’s really possible or desirable in this regard.)
If the libertarians get after you on this, Doug, please remind them that it is a history of TERRIBLE government policies re: planning/land use that have resulted in many Hoosier cities being very pedestrian unfriendly. I live in Fort Wayne and am fortunate enough to live near the Greenway trail here, which I use a lot – but mostly for pleasure. There are many places that I would like to be able to bike to (for practical, not recreational, reasons) but I am unwilling to risk life and limb to get there. Some trail initiatives are underway which is great. However, our public land use policy is just starting to change to encourage pedestrian paths – and as long as the county views paths as a “nice thing” rather than a requirement for road improvements, non-car transportation will remain difficult.
…urban design that makes greater use of local grocery stores and shops…
I LOVE the idea of this, but I know that my family is to busy/cheep/lazy to do it, and I think we’re not alone. People have already had the choice between more expensive local shops and the big box, and they chose cheep. I think the same thing would (or already has) happened with going to get a sack of groceries every other day vs spending a couple hours once a week and filling the SUV.
As to your point, J, I understand the risking life and limb part. The main people trail in Columbus goes along HWY 46, so that is very helpful. However, there is a good mile of a divided 4 lane city street (10th street) that I need to go down to get to work. It has no sidewalks, and the other path to work, US 31, also has no sidewalks. Sure, I know some people get mad when they have to move into the other lane to get around me, but they can deal. Personally, having been more than 100 lbs overweight (75 now), a heart attack was more of a risk if I didn’t ride than a car is now, so I bike.
I recently saw statistics regarding miles of multi-use trails in the Midwest. Frustrating that I can’t find them again. I do remember that Indiana had fewer miles of trail than all surrounding states except for Kentucky (gee, glad they are there to keep us from always being at the bottom of the list). Michigan has over 1500 miles while we have under 200 miles.
FYI, today is Indianapolis Bike to Work Day. Gotta go.
gee, glad they are there to keep us from always being at the bottom of the list
HAHA! So true. “We may be 49th, but there is one state that would LOVE to say that they made it to 49!” See, no problem at all now.